60 
ANIMAL CURIOSITIES 
for hunters, seeing the animal fast asleep, 
would creep up to the tree and saw through 
the stem, with the result that the elephant 
came toppling to the ground and was unable 
to get up again. 
Equally extraordinary was the fable con¬ 
cerning the badger. In an old dictionary 
the following description is given of the 
creature: “ Badger (also called Bawsin), a 
wild four-footed beast somewhat larger than 
a fox, and resembling a hog and a dog. It 
dwells in burrows, lives on insects, carrion, 
and fruit, stinks very much, fattens by 
sleeping, and shows its age by the number 
of holes in its tail, one being added every 
year.” 
Then we have the poetical type of Natural 
History fairy-tale, of which an excellent 
example is that concerning the argonaut or 
paper-nautilus, a creature which belongs to 
the mollusc family, dwells in a shell, and 
possesses eight mobile arms, two of which 
terminate in flattened expansions. According 
to report the argonaut utilized its shell as a 
boat, its body reposing inside, and six of its 
arms being thrust outside and used as oars, 
while the two specially developed ones were 
held aloft and employed as sails. Unfortu¬ 
nately, this charming story is not based upon 
